I added 1995 lucha libre lineups, mostly from the cities Torreon and Gomez Palacio (and an increasing amount from elsewhere), to the luchadb database over the last week. They’re integrated the different pages of this site, and they’re also just available here. This is a slow continuing project to mine the El Siglo de Torreon archive for lucha lineups and results.

A three way apuesta match in Saltillo with Latino, Demonio and Chavo ends with Latino losing his hair – only Latino doesn’t get shaved. A few days later, the commission insists he must if the promotion once to keep going. Everyone is only listed by one name, but I believe that’s the current Latino, the current Green Demon and the current Chavo Lomeli from Saltillo, forever in the same place.

Miguel Beltran takes over as Torreon box y lucha commission. Espanto II is among the people on the board. Beltran has promoted both sports. He’s going to make sure lucahdoras are in good shape and stop minors and people who don’t pass medical tests from being licensed. He’s going to stop medics from leaving shows early.

The Crash posted a video from Rey at the show, apologizing for missing the show and saying they’d have his match with Bestia later. Just like with Ricochet & the Hardy Boys, there’s a sincere intention to do that but it won’t happen if WWE scoops him up first. Even with Rey being off the show, they said they still sold out.

Sinn Bodhi fits with Masada as an extreme wrestler who’s worked on some of the same shows as The Crash wrestlers and still is a unexpected inclusion to be in a top Mexico faction.

Morelos Habla called the main event “an excellent bout“. That was not the reaction I was seeing on Twitter. This was really a house show that happened to be taped for TV. Nothing of importance happened, most of the matches were not any good, and the main event was really not any good. The opener is worth checking out if you can. Otherwise, you can ignore this show existed by the time Wednesday’s taping comes around.

AAA’s new Guadalajara arena had three days of Elegido & Gronda vs Chicano & Tigger Boy. Vampiro’s claim AAA’s going to go from 200 to 800 show was usual exaggeration, but they are going to be running a lot more shows if they’re sending luchadors to work this theme park arena every weekend. On the other hand, counting shows with guys who are never on TV like those four as AAA shows feels quite a stretch. Maybe it’ll be better after Lucha Underground wraps up.

Tercera is Drone’s first Friday match here since FantasticaMania. Magia Blanca is making a less dramatic return, not having been seen on streams in 6 weeks (and working a lot of Guadalajara when I’m having trouble recording Guadalajara.)

AroLucha launching crowdfunding investment

Arolucha announced they’re selling shares of their company on crowd investing platform We Funder. People who invest will own part of the company, up to a total of 1/9th if their funding maxed out. Investors will get discounted merchandise, be allowed to participate in polls on the creative decisions and get to see the pilot. The funding campaign kicked off with AroLucha’s CEO Jason Brown selling the idea in an article Tennesssean, who’s been covering this promotion since the December TV taping. Brown pitches it as a chance for the fans finally to be heard and that Rey Mysterio is part of the ownership group.

AroLucha’s timeline says Mysterio became part of the ownership group in November, the month before the first TV taping. I think that might mean Mysterio did not buy into the company, but perhaps instead was given stock or stock options as part of his deal for working that taping. On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said Rey’s involvement in AroLucha was overblown in the article, and that it would have no effect on his possible return to WWE.

If you check out Wefunder’s FAQs, the first couple of answers tell you not to invest to make money, and only to invest if you can afford to lose every single dollar you invest. That applies to all start up companies, not just AroLucha. Even a completely sound investment of a start up is likely to fail. This is a start up entering into a competitive market, which they’re trying to pitch as completely open to make it attractive and instead appearing as if they don’t understand what they’re doing. This is a group planning on doing TV tapings in May or June which doesn’t have a TV partner, and who’s plan of running 10 house shows this year ended with 4.

If you want to buy into a wrestling company for the novelty of saying you own part of a wrestling company and can afford to the $100 minimum investment, please do not let me stop you. I would no sooner stop the person who wants to spend that much or more on a replica championship title. I will simply advise you that your stock in AroLucha will probably end up being just as real as the replica championship belt, and lot less shiny.

AroLucha needs to get at least $50K to get anything funded. They’ll need a heavy campaign to reach even that minimum. The Tennessean article did not actually mention the funding site, which hurts. The $100 minimum to fund is a lot higher than traditional funding sites like Kickstarter, which erases a lot of people kicking in in small amounts of money they’d wouldn’t mind losing on a project like this. Years ago, Masked Republic tried something similar with a TV show pilot, promoted it a lot, and did not come close to hitting their number. Jeff Katz’s Wrestling Retribution Project, a 2011 Kickstarter wrestling show, did get funded but never delivered it’s content. That show is the boogeyman in the room, the one scares people away from wanting to invest in projects like this. You can get into the weeds on that one – there’s a theory few fans were actually affected because it was actually a small amount of private investors who funded the thing and they were just using Kickstarter as a way to get buzz – but it’s still the example of what can happen with these sorts of projects.

That buzz might actually be AroLucha’s buzz here. They need a TV deal, and they need a TV company to take them seriously. They’d like the money, the money will keep them going longer, but they’re selling themselves on social media impressions and the amount of people who they can claim will be tuning in once a network picks them up. Having a whole bunch of people who want to invest in their company is part of that TV pitch. Being able to promote Rey Mysterio as owner is another part of that plan.

The big obstacle for AroLucha are the Harris Brothers. AroLucha is hyping how reactive they are to the fans, and they’re aware of Vince Russo’s perception to not mention him at all in their sales pitch. There are people with the promotion obviously paying attention to every time the word “AroLucha” is mentioned, which means they’ve seen “AroLucha Nazis” quite a few times by now. The Harris Brothers infamously had SS tattoos on their arms, and one wore an SS t-shirt on a TNA show, which are commonly associated with Nazis. Whenever that image is posted, you’ll also find people claiming those logos are also part of biker culture, and they had them covered up, and they became born again Christians and are definitely not Nazis. That may be true – I’d like it to be true, we could use less Nazis – but that’s something they probably need to say themselves. I’d guess they think only a few people on the internet know or care about this accusation and they don’t want to give it more attention by acknowledging it, but the only type of people who are going to invest money in this project are the type of people to very much know this accusation.

I’m skeptical they’re getting the money either way, so maybe it’s not worth the hassle. But saying you’re not a Nazi should not be a hassle.

They’re up to $1,590 in funding at least check, which is more than I got for my book, so I guess I have to respect that.

Hijo del Wagner put a Wagner mask on Pagano and beat him up as if he was his father, though I guess his father doesn’t wear that any more. Fur robes were not easily available. Tirantes worked as a rudo referee, helping frequently and then counting a normal pin for the técnicos at the end anyway. Rey Escorpión interfered late for no particular reason except to set up Hijo del Vikingo attacking him to even the odds. That was the only appearance on the card for both wrestlers.

Super Fly & Tito Santana came out with three teams. The Alvarados agreed to take them on, and Psycho Clown came out to add himself as well. Averno fouled Carta Brava, who remained laying on the mat as Máximo kissed Averno three times. Máximo pinned Carta for the win.

Parka Negra ran in to help the Perros del Mal, and La Parka evened it up.

Psicosis turned the tide in the match by putting the snake on Murder

Thoughts:

2018 is a hard year for Ashley

The main event made me question why I was even watching AAA. It was so bad. It seemed good for the small children they were showing. It was still so bad to me. The wrestling was poor and lasted forever. I couldn’t believe how long the opening beatdown was going, thinking they must’ve not left time to have a comeback if the match was going to go 10 minutes before one. I was wrong, they had all the time in the world. And they had the two best wrestlers in the match watching the match backstage to do run-ins at the end that amounted to nothing. This match was going to be bad because everyone in it is not particularly good and was not interested in having a good match and they were doing the Tirantes stuff, but it might have been slightly not terrible if Hijo del Vikingo and Rey Escorpión were in the whole time. If you missed this one, count yourself as lucky.

The three way trios match was hard to follow and not that interesting when they slowed it enough down to make it easier to follow. Both rudos teams taking turns at holding an Alvarado down in the ring for an extended portion killed the momentum in the middle of the match. The Alvarados got the showcase here they didn’t get at Rey de Reyes, which was probably part of the idea. It just didn’t translate well to TV but seemed to get a good reaction from this crowd.

great bump Parka

The tag title match was a match that will be recorded as occurring despite not being good. Joe Lider used the stapler on his opponents. The opponents made the comeback and used the stapler on him. Mr. Aguila didn’t do a lot of impressive stuff and the version of this match with Parka Negra might have been better. Parka Negra did get come in and take a big bump at the end, so that was good for him.

At least the Vipers/Traidors match was short, and it’s not often you see a team win a match by using their pet snake. This was the kind of brawling match you’d expect with maybe less to it than you’d expect. I can’t recall anything Histeria actually did here, and the stuff the other three did wasn’t much.

proof of Vikingo’s existence

The second match wasn’t match. The Mamba & Pimpienla act can get a reaction but it’s much to watch. Estrella Divina isn’t as good as Faby Apache at being mean to Ashley, but at least they’re trying to keep this story going. The finish looked brutal and the match didn’t fall apart any point, and it’s about as much as I’d expect out of a Pimpinela match at this point.

The opener was a fun. They had energy and plans to do trincky things. It didn’t always work out, Dragon Solar seems a pretty spotty guy in particularly. It still was an exciting way to start the show. Bronco Gonzalez is still a pretty good base, saving a Solar spot from falling apart, and I wonder what’s happened where he’s not much a part of things. I can almost identify Fetiche out of a lineup now. Dinastia at least one pinfall win this year.

While Virus & Audaz did work together, Audaz submitted Templario to win their match (so maybe that feud is over for now?)

Thoughts:

Angel de Oro versus Cuatrero lived up to the tradition of emotional mask matches. The crowd, pro-Dinamita all the way, made this a moment along side other similar matches. It was better than last year’s Diamante Azul/Pierroth effort, but Niebla Roja/Gran Guerrero was definitely better. That mask match seemed to have people go far and beyond a normal match. Angel de Oro just doesn’t posses the ability to go any farther than he has before. He pulled off All his usual spots. They were also all his Usual spots. Maybe the failed top rope move near the end would’ve lead to something different. He did kill himself on the tope early on and took a lot of punishment from Cuatrero. Angel just didn’t really rise to the occasion like his brother did last summer. Cuatrero was solid all the way thru, looking impressive throwing Oro around and being in the right spot for his big moves. The inverted bear hug was a strange finish. At least it was an idea. The loudest portion of the crowd so badly wanted him to win that it came off like a huge victory for him. He could’ve just used a little more exciting opponent.

Volador & Valiente dives

The tag title match was good as it was going to be given the people involved. Bucanero couldn’t do much on his own but was willing to try – the monkey flip over the ropes spot was back, he was the one who took Volador super headscissors, he was one the one who caught (or tired) on the Valiente Special. Terrible continues to look great, and Valiente and Volador got enough of their big offense. It just still felt like a main event on a B—show and never a great match on it’s own. Terrible & Bucanero never came that close to winning, and they do much as a team that would give you a reason to believe they’d over come their obvious disadvantage. If they do something with Volador & Valiente, their defenses will probably be all better than this match. Like a lot of this show, this one seemed like it might be much better live with the crowd caring more than you’d expect.

The fourth match had the stream dying early on, and didn’t last for too long when we did get to see it. Gran Guerrero & Niebla Roja mixed got to mix it in, the Guerreros got to go thru their team offense, the técnicos got to make a big comeback, but nothing really sank it to it. Nothing wrong with it and the crowd got into it.

everyone lived

The tercera was highlighted more by the crowd reactions than the match. Dragon Lee & Mistico looked off their usual. It just fed into the crowd hating them even more. Rush laid it in on the closing dropkick and Mascara 2000 didn’t seem to have a lot of fun there. The Dinamitas didn’t stick out strongly in this match, but were there for the offense. They got two falls and not a lot of time, so this wasn’t a big showcase.

The women’s match was an OK match which still really didn’t feel like it should be on this show. They were doing more than usual because of the occasion, but it came off as slow and really had a hard time following the match which came before. Seductora’s first spot in this match to duck an invisible clothesline. At least she got a new outfit and the splash went well. Zeuxis crushed Kaho with the double knees. Kaho seemed thrilled to be there anyway and her energy helped the match. It would’ve helped if they got her into it a little quicker.

The opener was a great display. Audaz has looked good this year. He somehow got even better in this one. He was leaping around the ring like gravity was an optional thing, looking like the mostly easily agile person on the planet. Star Jr. wasn’t far behind him, his frog splash to win the first fall was outstanding and he was getting amazing height on his springboards thru the match. They were so spectacular that Templario walking the ropes for a dropkick or Flyer’s moonsault got over shadowed. It felt a little pre-planed but the plan was strong and they pulled it off well.

Perhaps because the show was on iPPV instead of YouTube, we got to see both dance numbers. They were great fun and added to the show. The flipside of being on iPPV is the iPPV didn’t work. Internet.TV was struggling to load and serve pages from well before the show started until midway thru the show. If you could get to the stream page, it worked fine (except for a minute in the fourth match.) It just became impossible to get there for most people for the first two matches. As usual in these situations, there was no explanation of what was going on until after the service was restored. An internet.tv account said they had a techinical issue and refunds would be available to anyone who sends their payment receipt and the email address of their account to aym@aymsports.com.mx.

If you could see the event, it was a fun event as long as you don’t expect every iPPV to have a MOTYC contender. The opener and the main event were pretty good, and everything was enjoyable outside of the women’s match. The crowd was way into the show, though mostly by booing the tecnicos (Mistico and Angel de Oro getting it the worst) and CMLL came off as a hot promotion.

JCR pushed the Arena Coliseo Anniversary show (early April) and the Arena Mexico Anniversary show (late April) as the next two big events for the promotion. There’s post show interviews with Angel de Oro and Cuatrero.

AAA tonight will be live on Twitch for a TV taping in Cuernavaca. The show is listed as starting at 7pm, which will be 8pm in the US – and maybe a half hour later than if it’s a normal timed show. It’s an abnormal lineup for a taping, the last one this year when Lucha Underground will be busy on the same night. AAA’s held off on the people who they believed might be in Los Angeles. They did the same with the Tlaxcala taping a few weeks ago, which led to Texano & Dr. Wagner making non-match appearances. That sort of thing may happen again, though it definitely means no Vampiro in a Box for this show.

You can see the full card here. It’s not good. The listed main event is La Parka & Pagano versus Dave the Clown & Hijo del Wagner. That’s obviously bad. Maximo/Mascara vs Chessman/Averno vs Carta/Mocho could be good, but there’s not much here. There’s enough missing people, between Lucha Underground and the people on the Televisa reality show, that a few people who haven’t made TV this year get on the show: the opener has Dragon Solar & Pardux making their 2018 debuts along side Dinastia facing Mini Histeria, Fetiche and Bronco Gonzalez, all also in their first show. The last time we saw Pardux, AAA teased him joining Los Perros del Mal. Maybe it’ll go some place this time.

This is a free show, being paid by the local government. Hopefully that means a big loud crowd.

Alberto did a press tour for AAA Friday afternoon. There was not a lot of new news, since there’s still no opponent named. Alberto said there are two possible options for his TripleMania opponent, and the one he wants to face has had some of Alberto’s top ten matches. Alberto didn’t want to name the person until it’s locked it. He promised it’d be spectacular. He also said he was open for any kind of match as long as it was a one on one match, as that’s what his fans want to see. (And it means it’s a self contained match.)

Alberto was in Mexico City the same day as his uncle Mil Mascaras was being honored, but neither seems to have said anything about each other. They had a war of words over who was the bigger star last year and I assume that to mean they haven’t patched things up. La Sombra, doing his own media tour for WWE, was at Arena Mexico last night.

The Crash is also running tonight in Tijuana with a mystery main event. Bestia 666 was supposed to take on Rey Mysterio, but Rey Mysterio is sidelined with a bicep injury. The Crash has said Bestia will face someone else, but has so far not revealed who. The semimain is also a mystery, since Rich Swann was supposed to be teaming with Arkangel Divino versus Shane Taylor & Mr. 450, and now Swann’s said not to be wrestling. You can see the whole card here, but I suspect there’s going to be some changes to move people up. As usual with The Crash, the show will be taped but we have no idea where, when or if that version will be put out.

I’m probably not giving the semimain enough credit; they were working hard and yet I found it hard to pay attention to. Stuka, one very much into doing the same moves in every match, broke out the handspring he doesn’t do a lot and a sort of DDT I can’t recall him using. Kawato is still taken aback every time he gets to win a fall. His kicks were better, his headscissors looked good, he probably should be a técnico. Niebla Roja is way over with this crowd.

Guerrero Maya is going to be a Blue Panther-ish rudo at some point in his CMLL career. It’d be ideal if it was sooner rather than latter. This lightning match felt like a small preview of why that chance would make sense. Maya wasn’t a rudo here, and it was broadly a técnico/técnico match where both guys dived. It also was Maya out wrestling and out smarting the more acrobatic flyer, all the way to the quick and nifty German suplex finish. Maya assisted Flyer to maybe his best singles match ever, guiding him thru some good mat wrestling portions and kept the match interesting throughout. This felt like a more complete match than I’d expect Flyer to have in this spot, which makes it intriguing what Maya might due with others.

Star Jr. looked great with Templario in the third fall of the tercera. Everyone looked good in the third fall of the match, which really moved compared to the first two falls.

Tonight is CMLL Homenaje a Dos Leyendas. Angel de Oro and Cuatrero meet in a loser gets unmasked match. The show is not on the usual free services. It will instead be available on iPPV for $10 USD or 100 MXN (about $5.50) if you can convince the purchase screen than you have a Mexican IP address. The show starts at 8:30pm CT local. That’s 9:30 pm in the US – if you switched your clocks last week, it’s an hour later than usual.

I wrote preview of the show over on Voices of Wrestling. To me, this show resembles last year’s Gran Prix, where the show might be good but not important enough to get people to pay money for it. There was even more buzz for the Gran Prix, with the novelty of outsiders having a rare big match in CMLL. Angel de Oro and Cuatrero are well known to CMLL fans but aren’t really known without it, and they’ve never been treated as top guys until this moment. I’m not super excited for this match while still thinking it should be pretty good.

My hunch since this match was first teased was Angel de Oro would be losing his mask. CMLL is as high on the NGD as they’ve been on anyone since the original Mistico push. Angel’s brother Niebla Roja has done well without the mask. So has Volador, and a mix of more unmasked tecnicos makes some business sense.

This card could use a second big match, as the women’s mask match backed up the men’s mask match at the Anniversario. They’re not getting that match. Volador/Valiente versus Terrible/Rey Bucanero is an inescapable lesser version of the Volador/Ultimo Guerrero vs Terrible/Rush tag team final we just saw. They will try to make it work anyway, but it’s not a match people are excited for just because it’s happening. The rest of the card should be at least good, there’s just not that much direction. The unending tournament of the last six weeks has taken all the air out of the room for any other feuds, and not following off that first big tournament outcome (the new Los Ingobernables) on this show is wasted momentum. It’s a big CMLL so it’ll still probably have good matches, but it’s CMLL succeeded despite it’s lackluster programming efforts.

The assistance at the gate they are getting is Mil Mascaras. He’ll be will be honored as the luchador legend on tonight’s show. Mascara is at least one of the ten most important Mexican wrestlers of all time. CMLL usually honors wrestlers by having them simply come to the ring with their music, wave at the fans and get a plaque. There may be more for a someone the stature of Mil Mascaras. Mil doesn’t make many Arena Mexico appearances. He’s usually only coming to shows to wrestle and Ultimo Dragon has used him a couple times. I had a fear CMLL might do the same on this show, and thankfully that didn’t occur. CMLL’s not in the habit of bringing legends to shows outside once or twice a year bits honoring them like this one. I hope Mil Mascaras lives decades more and shows up to Arena Mexico many more times to complain about kids these days not knowing how to really wrestle. The reality of the situation, the thing I think his long time fans and everyone else knows, is they may never get another shot to see Mil Mascaras in his original home arena. That might cause a different fanbase than usual to turn out. The fanbase who comes to the big shows is usually pro rudo and I’m not sure if that’ll be the case this time.

The legal threat has not deterred the Wrestling Observer Newsletter from posting results from the last two tapings. It’s right after where he’s reported about that legal letter, and it’s very detailed. I do sense the sites which repost much of the WON content (and sometimes credit the WON) have backed away from writing about Lucha Underground. I’m not sure if it’s fear of getting the same legal letter – it might have just someone doing the math and realizing LU is not worth the headache when they can write about the lowliest person on the WWE roster and get many times the same traffic. The spoilers are still there for people who want to read them and less people are talking about Lucha Underground. I’m not sure that was a great outcome.

I guess Faby is back in April. And Lady Shani & Hades/Hashatary aren’t expected back. Probably just one more match to go, and then they can tear all of this up and announce something completely different.

+LuchaTV has a sit down with Ricky Marvin. Among other topics, Marvin explains he’s frustrated by his current situation: he was a star in NOAH, but that didn’t transfer at all back home. CMLL says they don’t have a spot for him, and AAA put him under a mask and it didn’t really work. It’s a shame Marvin isn’t CMLL. In his return to the indies, he seems like a veteran who can still go, and CMLL could use a few more of those on the rudo side. Marvin would also be an internationally valuable name for them; he’d create new matches for FantasticaMania and ROH would probably be interested in using him thru CMLL.

Fuerza Guerrera says he’ll take that mask match with Octagon, but he’d really like a mask match with Atlantis. Someone needs to tell Fuerza that he should be saying he’d really like test himself against Psycho Clown & Hijo del Fantasma because the payoff he’s looking for could actually happen that way.

Cavernario faked a foul in the third to cause a quick end to the main event and set up a singles match.

Kraneo splashed his partners by accident to cost them the first fall. Idol & Kraneo argue after the fall. Idol trips up Kraneo to cost his team the second fall and the fight after the match.

Thoughts:

The main event was nothing even by CMLL b-show nothing main events. The third fall didn’t feel like it got going before Cavernario faked the foul, and the first two falls weren’t much. They went shorter in this match than the one where Volador broke his nose. The show ran long, but this shouldn’t be so short.

Soberano/Mephisto was kind of similar to Volador/Mephisto, except we haven’t seen three dozen Volador singles matches and have all his spots memorized. There were other touches, like young Soberano being utterly baffled by Mephisto using a Gedo clutch for the win, and Tirantes being a troll in what might have been an attempt to get the fans more Soberano. (That may be a generous read of how much Tirantes was doing to help the match and how much he was doing to entertain himself. Whatever the intent, it felt more like it distracted than helped.) The second fall moved and ended quick. This third fall didn’t really. Mephisto matches turn into slow kick out affairs, and Tirantes slowed things down even more by making everyone react to his antics. Soberano still looks athletic and impressive, and took the super Devil’s Wing impressively. I wish he’d just stop taking the Canadian Destroyer as every big match finish. This match felt like it hit the upper limit of what this type of match is going to be, and it was a borderline good/great match to me.

Soberano

The most impressive sight on that show is Hechicero somehow being able to pull Kraneo in it’s weird submission. Neither of these make shift teams showed anything unusual as a team, it was just weirdness to set up the weird Idol/Kraneo feud. Idol is in the right, Kranoe is not so accurate with his splashes.

Poor Templario took the knees to the gut on Rey Samuray’s 450 try because he thought hew as helping by moving closer, then lurched forward to catch Lestat’s dive and got a leg to the head. Templario saved Samuray from being dropped on his head at the end, so it worked out. Match was not interesting outside of Templario.

Astro would fit right in CMLL Mexico City’s minis matches. Unfortunately, so would Guerrero Especial, because those matches aren’t much. This was Mercurio doing the same Mercurio moments and Stukita not going off as much as he will on Fridays. Astro himself has had better showings.

A busy week: there’s a live stream of AAA or CMLL every day from tomorrow Friday to Wednesday. I don’t know how good any of it will be, but there sure is a lot of it.

AAA on Twitch streams on Saturday and Wednesday. Neither card looks all that exciting. The opener on Saturday does feature a bunch of people who haven’t been seen at all this year. The Lucha Underground crew is back full time starting with the Wednesday show. That Saturday show on Twitch is overlapping the AAA show on Space, which is the first time I can recall two AAA shows being on at the same time. It’s happened to CMLL in the past.

CMLL tomorrow is going to confuse people. It’s an iPPV for people who are used to getting it for free, and it’s a 9:30pm start for people who are used to it being 8:30pm. It’s also going to be an good show, though one where I can’t imagine anyone outside of dedicated CMLL fans paying for it or talking about the matches afterwards. On the other again, certain voting results suggest there’s more internet English speaking fans of CMLL than I would’ve figured.

In the midst of the other content, IWRG maybe has two tapings or maybe not, there’s never any telling if that Wednesday show will actually air. And maybe Kraneo actually turns tecnico this week in Puebla, but where will that leave Mije? They don’t have enough rudos in the micro division to survive him joining the tecnico side.

I have a month of membership to ROH’s new video service, Honor Club. I got it to watch the Ultimo Guerrero/Volador appearances on their recent New York show. That show was good, worth the $10 fee I paid for the month. I still have access for the rest of the month and there’s other CMLL guest appearances on the service in the VOD section. I thought I might as well check them out and let you know if it’s worth checking out. I wouldn’t say anything is here is worth the $10/month alone, it just might be an extra reason to pay for the service if there’s a live show you also want to see.

One of the reasons it’s hard to check out luchadors in US (or English speaking) promotions is the announcing is usually dreadful. I made a joke of a rating scale to demonstrate the problem. It’s not easy for an unfamiliar person to find out about luchadors, but it can be done and it should be done if your job is to explain these people to the audience. If someone thought a (Mexican) wrestler was important enough to be in your ring, you should know who that person is and what they do in that ring. Lucha libre isn’t easy to follow but small children manage to do it so it doesn’t seem impossible.

(Disclaimer: I’m always willing to help this situation. Sometimes I try to help without being asked, and it’s usually met with indifference, so I’m not really doing that any more. But I’m willing to make the situation better as long as I’m not actually involved in the product. I’m not looking for a job, I’m just looking for a broadcast that won’t cause me to throw something at my TV.)

I don’t find many of the Mexican announcers to be great at their jobs either, I’ve just learned to tune them out. It’s harder in English.

The Ring of Honor broadcasts varied. It changed a lot after Steve Corino moved on to WWE. He and Kelly were doing a jokey broadcast where Corino not knowing what was going on was one of the sources of comedy. It didn’t work for me but I can understand people like the vibe. Colt Cabana and Ian Riccaboni are a newer to the spots and a bit more focused on proving they know what’s going on to build some credibility with the audience.

Here’s what I saw:

Angel de Oro vs ACH vs Kamaitachi vs Matt Jackson

Should you watch: Yes, and it’s an easy call. It’s an all action match that moves fast and goes pretty well, except for the guy who gets pinned at the end. The crowd seemed totally unfamiliar with Angel de Oro but whoever put this match seemed to know him pretty well to make sure he got his impressive dives in. They only missed the campana from hitting all of his usual spots, ad they look great for a first time audience. He doesn’t have any noticeable issues working with the other opponents, even when he’s not working with Kamaitachi. This would be a borderline Great match under the normal rating system.

Kamaitacihi and Angel de Oro have a singles match on the following day’s show; the TJ Hawke 2016 ROH best of list (which also inspired me to find these matches) said it was even better than this. That show is oddly not in the current archive as far as I can tell.

Things a lucha fan will care about: they actually use Angel de Oro’s correct music, which is a surprise when you’re used to seeing them on TV with other songs. That’s consistent thru these VODs. The ring announcers wrongly goes with “Mexico City” as his hometown though.

Things a lucha fan will be confused about: The announcers make a running joke of some controversy ACH was involved in but never explain it; this is a reference to ACH making a surprise appearance on an AAW show ending with a strange speech about a divorce, which was an illusion to him quitting ROH soon. Matt Jackson and the crowd go crazy for Delete chance, which is part of a looming feud with the Hardy Boys.

Announcer grades: Kevin Kelly 2 (had the pronunciation, looked up Angel de Oro’s wikipedia for championship info), Steve Corino 0 (trying to be funny but running the pronunciation bit into the ground.)

Will Ferrera vs YO vs The Panther vs Silas Young

Should you watch: Yes. These guys also oddly work well together, with more The Panther/Silas Young interaction than you’d expect. It’s often just 1v1 pairings with a third person breaking up the pinfall after a big move and no one really having extended control. The action keeps on moving that way, and everyone makes the most of their moment to look good. Panther’s early tope looks good (though Young oddly moves backwards when he’s attempting to catch it) and his springboard dropkick is on point. This looks a like 2018 The Panther, though he wasn’t doing this well in CMLL at this point.

Misterioso Jr. vs SHO vs Adam Page vs Lio Rush

Should you watch: No. Misterioso is not really motivated by the appearance, doesn’t fit in this match anyway, and he’s not much of a focus of the match. It comes off as a three way with Misterioso making occasional appearances. Even without him, it’s not as exciting as a match between our old friend Raijin and Lio Rush might seem to be.

Announcer grades: Kevin Kelly 0, Steve Corino 0

Steve Corino: “Misterioso Jr. told us he was 100kgs. I think that was the first lie he told us.”
Kevin Kelly: “What town did he say he was from?”
Corino: “Mexico…[incomprehensible noise]”
Kelly: “It had a lot of rolling r’s in it. We said how about just ‘Mexico’ and he said ‘Si.’”

That bit at least plays funnier than it reads. Kelly, in another bit later, says he talked to Okumura about calling some CMLL matches but realizes it may not be a great idea when Corino warns him about Mexico.

Announcers grades for psychic predictions: Kevin Kelly 4! In a discussion intended simply to bury Bone Soldier, Kelly accidentally lays out the Elite/Bullet Club OG split without even known the Elite are the Elite yet. He has Page in the wrong group, or it might be the right group at that point.

Rhett Titus, Kenny King, Caprice Coleman vs SHO, YO, Misteiroso Jr.

Should you watch: Nah. It’s a basic opening trios match to get over the Coleman team for stuff late on. Their control period feels long and the action doesn’t really pick up enough to make worth the time. There’s more of attempt to get in a big Misterioso spot here, but he can’t get up his opponent for the Gori Special despite two attempts and help from Sho. It’s so off that the announcers had no idea what he was doing. That seems fair.

Announcer Grades: Kevin Kelly 0, Steve Corino 0. Kevin Kelly talks about Misterioso being part of a family of wrestlers, specifically mentioning uncles who are wrestling. I can’t figure it he’s mixed up Misterioso and The Panther (with uncle Black Warrior) or if he thinks Misterioso is part of the Rey Mysterio family. They otherwise say nothing of note.

Should you watch: Maybe. There’s some entertainment here with a lot of caveats. Half the eliminations have some storyline to them, and ROH expect you to already know and care about those stories. More critically, the Panther is the first out and the match goes about twenty five minutes longer after he leaves. It’s good action but really long to space out the eliminations. They do a solid job of the story they’re telling, this just might be too much work for a casual lucha fan.

Announce Grades: Steve Corino 0, Alex Shelley 3?

Steve Corino calls him “the Tiger” before correcting himself. The discussion at the start of the match is also great.

Shelley seems to be here to root for Lio Rush during this match. He also happens to be a lucha libre fan. It does not appear he’s seen The Panther before, but he’s the only one of these announcers to immediately realize he’s Blue Panther’s son, and then calls Blue Panther “the best wrestler ever.” There’s bonus points in that. Shelley also starts saying words like “tope”, “quebradora”, “casadora”, like someone who knows what they’re talking about. Given prep time, Shelley would be a great pick to announce for one these matches again.

Jay White, Dragon Lee vs Will Ospreay, Volador

Should you watch: YES. Four guys trying to steal this show with every big move they know in an exciting match. Volador & Dragon Lee make a strong impression in Volador’s first match in the promotion. Ospreay try to top them, and really does with the dive at the end. White is not as much a big moves guy. He never feels out of place, but doesn’t have the highlight moments as the other three. There’s moments where you’d wish they’d keep going instead of stopping to play to the crowd and “selling” is more “rolling out of the way so other people have space for move”, but it all works.

Minutia: We’re into the generic replacement music era. They have not entered the era of knowing where the luchadors are beyond “Mexico.” Dragon Lee gets told to leave the ring on a tag early on and threatens to punch the referee (?!?) but then it works as a lucha libre tag rules anyway so maybe the referee should’ve just left him alone.

Announcing Grades: Ian Riccaboni 2, Kevin Kelly 1, Colt Cabana 1. Everyone tries to get “Volador” right. Riccaboni is the only who did (wikipedia) research and makes use of it. No one says anything dumb.

Esfinge & Rey Cometa vs The Dawgs (Rhett Titus & Will Ferrara)

Should you watch: Yes, and I didn’t think I was going to write that half way thru. It’s the first match so far that’s US hot tag style. It’s a little slow building to that moment. It turns out to be worth the trip. Esfinge & Cometa put forward good efforts. Cometa pulls off the Brillo Cometa and Esfinge seems sharp. Their opponents handle them well and the crowd really was into it for the finish.

Minutia: This seems like a much bigger building than the year before, and they probably could’ve gone even bigger given how many people are in the standing room overlook. The CMLL luchadors, especially on these Texas shows, do the Kalisto/Lucha Dragon fist pumping, which is hilarious and nothing they do at home. This one has an Alberto Si! Si! Si! chant too, and also the more traditional Si Se Puede. The luchadors are more over in San Antonio than Dallas but that seems like the case for everyone.

Announcer Grades: Colt Cabana 3 and BJ Whitmer 1

Cabana drew the wikipedia straw. He took notes, he even knows Esfinge’s family tree, seems happy about the knowledge he’s dropping, and then…

Cabana: “Rey Cometa! Used to wear a mask, lost it to the Puma King.”
Whitmer: “How long ago?”
Cabana: “[searches notes, realizes it’s not in there]…a while ago”

BJ is not a good friend! Whitmer seems to be an emergency fill in for Riccaboni. Both are making a fair attempt at the pronunciations. The effort is there. What really blows me away is Cabana calls the Nudo Egipico as it’s happenin. He knew the name and he even knew the set up to the cradle. That’s a thumb up from me.

Should you watch: Maybe. The match is fine, maybe even as far as good. The nature of a four way tag match means Esfinge & Cometa aren’t really in all that much and don’t get a lot of time. The announcers note this was Team CMLL versus the Motor City Machine Guns before the other teams were added, which is something I would’ve liked to see a lot more. Shelley is barely in the match, giving the impression this change was to hide him due to injury or something along those lines. I really want Alex Shelley doing lucha and it never seems to work out. Titus/Ferrara and Young/Bruiser are perfectly acceptable teams and Esfinge & Cometa get to do moonsaults onto everyone at the end, so this is totally watchable. Just not must watchable.

Announcer Grades: Colt Cabana 2 & Ian Riccaboni 2 – and maybe those are too low. Theyr’e trying on the names, and there’s really not a lot of time to in to much more about these CMLL guys when they’ve got this many people in the match. They do seem to think it’s an elimination match until people start breaking up pinfalls, which might be another sign this was put together late.